Homesteading, Hobby Farm, Gardening

Author: lilfarmchic

I’m that person who cannot go out without a coating of bug spray on. I tell my husband it’s because I’m so sweet……I think he has other ideas of why….hahahaha! I hate the thought of what all those scary chemicals are in the name brand store bought repellents. If I can’t pronounce it or spell it…it’s probably some bad stuff. So I just like the idea of homemade everything and why not your own bug spray too. I have made my own using essential oils. It’s easy, smells fantastic and works great! 😊

I don’t know about you but I found myself in a swimsuit when the warm weather hit this past weekend. Standing in front of a mirror looking at myself I wondered what the heck happened! Yikes!! I have packed on a few too many pounds over the last year. It’s not a good feeling. For me, the only way I have been successful in the past in losing weight is low carb/keto style eating. So I am getting back on track with my keto lifestyle but every once in awhile you want a little snack or treat. These are perfect for that without breaking your ketosis.

Today, I came home from work and made some homemade almond milk to use in morning smoothies. Easy process but what to do with all that leftover almond pulp? This recipe is perfect for that! Or not if you don’t have any almond pulp. No worries 😉 I give you two options.

Right now, we are in egg season. My hens are laying more eggs than I know what to do with. Eggs, eggs and more eggs! We’ve been eating a lot of deviled eggs, fried eggs, egg salad, egg custard pie. I’m always looking for new, fun and delicious ways to use them. Thought I’d share with you one of my favorites. It’s a must have recipe! And it’s such a stunningly pretty dish with those bright yellow yolks. If you haven’t tried goldenrod eggs, now is your chance!

My mom use to make this for us and I still love it and my husband and son do too. It’s not only good for breakfast, it’s wonderful for dinner too.

Since I have chickens and now ducks, I often get asked about boiling eggs and I can’t tell you how many articles I have seen on the subject. And truth be told…most of these articles are doing it all wrong. There are many wrong ways….baking soda in water, poking holes in the egg….lol what???

If you simply boil a farm fresh egg, half the white will come off with the shell when you go to peel it. We have all seen this happen that raise chickens or buy fresh eggs. But here is the secret….I don’t boil my eggs anymore at all. I steam them. Perfect every single time…shell slides right off. Easy peasy!

My sisters birthday is this week. She lives in Denver and I’m in Pennsylvania so we don’t see each other very often. I thought I would do something extra special for her birthday so I decided on making our Grandmom’s Molasses cookies. I think they were everyone’s favorite. They were certainly mine! I will package them up and mail them priority to her as a sweet surprise.

Our Grandmom lived in a small town in NY called Angelica. It’s one of those places for me when I think about it that I get that lump in my throat…..so many sweet childhood memories. I remember the way my grandmom cut my toast into three slices, her neat cuckoo clock, the parlor (do people still have these??), the scary heater at the end of the stairway that I was sure was going to suck me in and hurt me hahaha! It really was scary….😳 and the town of Angelica is so quaint still to this day. It’s has a roundabout in the center of town, in the middle of the roundabout is a grassy park with a playground and croquet courts. There are sweet little churches and an old fashioned town hall building surrounding it. Not much has changed there throughout the years.

My grandmom was a great baker and cook. I cherish all of her recipes but when I think back to my childhood, I mainly remember that she made the best cookies! Molasses below and her raisin filled cookies are my two favorites. I will share the raisin one in a later post 😊

I just love my lil farm. I started with my two fainting goats Fred and Betty. They are now 4 1/2 years old. I will tell you about them sometimes in another post. I then added a few chickens, then a few more…then a few more…it’s addictive…you can never have too many and you get eggs! It’s a #winwin. So adding ducks just seemed like a great add and they definitely are. But for me, when looking for information on ducks specifically it was kinda hard. There is lots on chickens. Full blogs, websites, coops, even cute clothes, you name it…everything chicken. Hence…the writing of this post. I hope someone finds my experiences with raising ducklings useful.